


a cup with a chip

by halfwheeze



Series: adventures in a building in bed-stuy [2]
Category: Hawkeye (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Bed-Stuy, Bucky Barnes Needs a Hug, Coffee, M/M, Pre-Relationship, Pre-Slash, The Building in Bed-Stuy, could be read as platonic, drinking coffee
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-01
Updated: 2021-01-01
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:28:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,049
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28481664
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/halfwheeze/pseuds/halfwheeze
Summary: Instead of staying on the run, the Winter Soldier is staying in a building in Bed-Stuy. Hawkeye eventually figures that out.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes & Clint Barton, James "Bucky" Barnes/Clint Barton
Series: adventures in a building in bed-stuy [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2086455
Comments: 6
Kudos: 62





	a cup with a chip

**Author's Note:**

> prompted with "there is some coffee in your sugar." 
> 
> hope you enjoy!

The thing about being an Avenger, Clint decided early on, was that you never got an downtime. He never got any downtime, so he never got to just hang out in the tower, so he never got to go down to his apartment in Bed-stuy, so there was no way he could have known to tell Cap that the Winter Soldier was living in his apartment building, so it’s really Cap’s fault. Yeah. It was Cap’s fault he had no idea that the Winter Soldier had taken up residence not only in Brooklyn, in Bed-Stuy, in his neighborhood, but in his _building,_ on his _floor,_ in the apartment _next door to his._ God damn it, he should break his left big toe more often. It was just enough that the docs at the tower wanted him to keep off of it, but not enough to actually slow him down. 

The Winter Soldier’s apartment door was open, and it didn’t take long for Clint to figure out why; every kid in the neighborhood seemed to have permission to walk or toddle in and out of there, and not a single one of them had the common sense to close a door behind them. Clint didn’t either when he crossed the threshold, and the fucking Winter Soldier was too busy doing something at the counter to notice him, though one of the kids did. 

“Hey Mr. B!” Raven said, bumping her shoulder with his on her way out, her fourth grade math homework already done in her hand. They came over to the Winter Soldier’s apartment... to do homework. Huh. He smiled at Raven and sent her on her way, but pursued the Winter Soldier instead of using the last of his brain cells to figure out if she was still better at math than he was; he had dropped out in third grade. At the counter, he found out what the Winter Soldier was doing: making coffee. Or, rather, making a faintly coffee tinted sweet drink, mostly milk with lots and lots of sugar. 

"There is some coffee in your sugar," he said, couldn’t resist saying really, and he didn’t realize that he could catch the Winter Soldier off guard until the other man startled ever so slightly. He probably thought that Raven was talking about Mr. Baxter downstairs, or maybe Mr. Broughton down the street, or maybe even that she was talking to the Winter Soldier himself, if he was using his real name. There were lots of questions to be asked. Clint put his back against the counter so that he and the Winter Soldier were face to face, able to make eye contact, but the other man didn’t seem to keen on looking at him, instead staring down at his coffee. 

“I had a lot of military coffee, and then I didn’t have any for a long time. Figured I might as well drink it how I like it now,” the Winter soldier answered dutifully, hair half obscuring his face. Clint sighed. It wasn’t any fun to verbally spar with a guy who wasn’t quite all there, or who looked like Lucky when Clint first got him, so Clint wasn’t gonna kick a guy when he was down. He’d rather just let him live. Instead, he turned and opened the cabinet above the coffeemaker, finding a plethora of mugs for a man who couldn’t have moved in that long ago, and pulled one out. 

“You’ve got a lot of mugs,” he commented, setting one with a picture of Clifford the Big Red Dog and a chip in it on the counter and pouring coffee into it straight. How did he already have cups with chips? He drank the coffee just like that, a few sips of it, and added just a little bit of sugar when he found out that the Winter Soldier made his coffee a little bitter. 

“You drink that shit black? Are you, like, okay? Emotionally?” the Winter Soldier asked, raising an eyebrow but still not looking at him directly. Clint snorted. 

“Like? You been spending a little too much time with the youth, Winter?” he asked, raising an eyebrow of his own. Winter hummed. 

“They don’t care that I’m... like this, you know? A little... off. And I go by James, now, actually. Don’t tell Steve I’m here?” James requested, his voice going just a touch desperate. _Aw, lost causes, no._ Clint was a fucking sucker. He pulled a spine from somewhere - probably borrowed it from Natasha or something - and asked questions instead of just folding. 

“Why did you come here if you didn’t want him to know where you are?” 

“I figured if anyone would understand the need to get away from everyone else after all of that, it would be Hawkeye,” James pointed out, finally looking him in the eye. Clint almost wished he hadn’t for the way that it made him feel flayed open, known in all of the ways that only Natasha really knew him; there was something about indoctrination that really drew the family together, huh? Clint forced breath out through his nose and coughed. Yeah.

“Yeah. Point. I won’t tell him. For now. But you gotta tell him eventually. He’s been looking all over hell’s half acre for you,” Clint told him, knowing that he probably already knew, because someone had to remind him. Steve didn’t deserve this. Bucky Barnes was his best friend, even if James wasn’t that guy anymore. James huffed. 

“I didn’t ask him to.” 

“You didn’t have to.” 

“So why not just tell him I’m here?” James asked, defeat slipping into his voice like an old friend. Clint bumped their shoulders. 

“You said it. I know what it’s like to start running and not know when you’ll stop. I’m glad I was your place to stop,” Clint said, just a bit too honest. James took a sip of his coffee and seemed to steel himself, but he just said, 

“You know they call you _Hawkguy_ around here?” There were lots of questions to be asked, but none that couldn’t be put off, at least for now. 

“Oh fuck off, Barnes,” Clint said, hopping on the counter. Two of the kids came in after that, and they settled into a comfortable rythym after that. 

**Author's Note:**

> prompt me @primekent on tumblr !
> 
> feel free to c*mmission me!


End file.
